Is Healing In The Atonement? (Part 2)

In the first article on healing I talked in great detail about God designing our bodies to self heal and without that design no doctors or medicines would be able to heal us. Secondly, I talked about being in harmony with God in order for his additional blessing in our healing process.  Many Christians today have been taught to confess that they are healed when they are walking contrary to how God intended. Confession is a positive element in healing as long as we are walking as God intended. If you have not read the first article, I suggest you do so because I laid out a foundation for how I will proceed with this topic. 

There are many more scriptures we could review in the Old Testament besides what I wrote about in the first article but suffice it to say God healed people “Before Christ” was born or sacrificed.  Let me close out this Old Testament foundation about God’s healing people before Christ came with this illustration about God healing a pagan military officer. The moment we think we have God figured out he does something extraordinary, like healing an unbeliever.

The story is found in 2 Kings 5.  It is about a man called Naaman who was the commander of the Syrian army, which had cruelly attacked Israel for years. Not only was he a gentile or non-Jewish person, he was a hated enemy of the Jewish people. Despite this, Naaman becomes the first person healed of leprosy that we know in the Old Testament and this event made Jews angry even during the time of Christ. It had to make the Jews crazy because he was both a pagan and an enemy of Israel.  In the story, a young Israeli slave girl tells this general’s wife about the possibility of Naaman being healed of his leprosy.

2 Kings 5:3

She said to her mistress, I wish that my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would cure him of his leprosy.

This story is profound for many reason. First, a simple girl has faith that God heals in her day, and secondly, she cares for this general even though she is his slave working for him and away from her family and home of Israel. Thirdly, this girl believes God can heal an unbeliever non-Jew. I think this story illustrates that God longs to show mercy to anyone and “Reads” the human heart better than we can. God desires to show who will respond to his grace and quite frankly I think he is frustrated with those will not believe. This general was profoundly changed from his healing and changed his beliefs because of his divine healing.

As the story goes, Naaman got healed because a righteous prophet prayed for him and because this general followed the instructions of the prophet, even though he initially rejected his instructions.  It seems God always requires an act of faith on our part when it comes to healing. Our faith becomes the catalyst that releases God’s provision.  So Naaman experienced his miracles. By reading the story you can see that had Naaman been stubborn and not listened to counsel he would have missed his healing opportunity.

Jesus mentions this healing story as well in the gospels of Matthew and Luke when Jesus is proclaiming himself the Messiah that was prophesied to come. In this instance, Jesus uses Naaman’s story to illustrate that though God is willing and able to heal anyone who responds in faith, he also often doesn’t provide healing because of a person’s lack of faith. When Jesus used this story the people around him got so angry they wanted to kill him right then and there. The idea that God would heal a pagan to them was absurd and disrespectful to them and their Jewish beliefs. How often does a person’s bias prevent God from moving in their lives.

Luke 4:27-28

And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things;

I want to now address the main passages people use to justify their belief that healing is in the atonement rather than seeing that God has always provided healing for humanity and has also done what I call extraordinary healings throughout the New Testament before Jesus went to the cross.

Scripture says Jesus went about preaching the kingdom of God and healing many people. Keep in mind that Jesus did not, as some report, heal all the time and was hindered from releasing healing because of people’s unbelief. In Jesus’ home town of Nazareth, scripture says he “Could Not” do any healings but only healed a few sick people in his home town. This reveals the key role a person’s inner belief has on whether they receive healing or not.  It illustrates that being miraculously healed is not just up to God but he puts some of the healing possibility on us and our faith.

Mark 6:5

And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.

Matthew 4:23

And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.

The few main texts that people use to declare that healing is in the atonement starts with the book of Isaiah, where the famous prophecy is given about the coming Messiah and why he would come. Keep in mind that the idea and subject of atonement was celebrated once a year after their slavery in Egypt when the angel of death went through the land of Egypt and killed the first born of everyone except the Jews who had put blood on the doorpost of their house.  The meaning of this sacred day, called the “Day of Atonement”, is Yom Kippur.  It’s considered the holiest day of the year in Judaism. Observation of the day is marked by fasting and prayers of repentance during a daylong service in the synagogue.

So, Isaiah’s prophecy was that the Messiah would come to heal and cleanse the Jews from their sin and brokenness.  Because of Jesus sacrificing himself, people would be healed of their iniquities or sins. The healing of sin is the “Main Subject” of this text but somehow people have read into the subject matter and claimed the atonement of Christ was for physical healing when healing was already available in the Old Testament times. It seems Israel had lost God’s call to be cleaned and instead put their eyes on a deliverer from people and governments like Rome, instead of redemption from sin.

Isaiah 53:4-6

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

The context of Isaiah 53 is resolving the problem with “INQUITY“, not physical disease or sickness. The sickness is our sin. The Atonement is the sacrifice Jesus Christ made to help us overcome sin, adversity, and death. Jesus’s atoning sacrifice took place in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross at Calvary. He paid the price for our sins, and took upon Himself death, and was resurrected for our forgiveness, not the healing of our bodies as some claim.

Certain authors and Christian teachers insist that, in some sense, God not only made Christ to be sin for us, but also made him to be sick for us. Christ vicariously endured our diseases as well as our iniquities. Simply put, Christ bore our sickness in the very same way that he bore our sins. This is the twisting of scripture to say something it does not say in order to justify a false doctrine or teaching.

Therefore, it is theologically misleading to say that Jesus bore our sickness in the same way he bore our sins. Rather, he paid the price of sin in order that one day, when he returns to glorify his people, he may wholly do away with sickness in our bodies and give us “New Bodies” like his. Remember that sickness and disease is the cause of sin in humanity.

The Bible records God healing every kind of issue, except blindness, under the Old Covenant and even raised the dead! And while God forgave sins and redeemed people in Old Covenant times, he did not regenerate people’s spirits (causing them to be “born again”). Spiritual regeneration was only possible because of what Jesus did on the cross and what the Holy Spirit did in the repentant. But this is not the case with physical healing. Jesus did heal as a sign of him being the coming Messiah and actually gave some of his authority to his closest disciples to do the same but in a limited way. The main topic of Jesus and his disciples preaching was repentance of a heart and lifestyle outside of harmony with God. Healing was and still is a tool used to substantiate the gospel.

Matthew 8:16-17

When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet.

So, the question is did Christ bare our sickness in the very same way that he bore our sins? Did Jesus heal to substantiate his position of Messiah or was that part of Isaiah’s prophecy?

I will continue on this question in a third article…..

Questions:

1) Has the Atonement for sin been overshadowed in your life because of a need for healing?  Carefully reread Isaiah 53, as well as the whole chapter 53, to correct your emphasis on healing of the body over the need for healing of sin.

2)  Have you considered God’s promise to Israel to be their healer and understand God is speaking the very same thing to the body of Christ today? Exodus 15 spells out God’s heart for everyone so all will trust in him as their God.

May we rely on God’s will more than rely on ours for healing,

Pastor Dale